The subject matter disclosed herein relates to gas turbine engines and associated cooling systems.
Gas turbine engines include one or more turbine stages driven by hot gases of combustion. For example, a gas turbine engine may include a compressor section, a combustor section, and a turbine section. The compressor section may include one or more compressor stages configured to compress an oxidant (e.g., air), which is then routed to the combustor section. The combustor section may include one or more combustors configured to combust a fuel with the oxidant (e.g., air) to generate the hot gases of combustion. Finally, the turbine section may include one or more turbine stages driven by the hot gases of combustion. The gas turbine engine generates a considerable amount of heat, and thus one or more cooling systems may be used to cool sections of the gas turbine engine. Unfortunately, the cooling systems generally discharge any extracted heat into the atmosphere as waste heat.